Abigail Denning

Our Last Walk

Our Last Walk is a poem about me saying goodbye to my mum, who I lost to Lung Cancer on the 5th of May 2025.

As we walked through the woods,
with Teddy between our toes.
We laughed about life
and all the happiness it bestows.
 
As the dawn chorus began to chime,
the sun poked through the trees.
The bluebells bathed in sunlight,
danced in the light summer’s breeze.
 
As the birds sang around us,
she looked to me and smiled.
The kind that promises home.
The kind that makes life worthwhile.
 
As the sun awakened,
she knew she couldn’t stay.
‘I love you my darling,
I’ll miss you every day.’
 
I reach across and hug her,
breathing her in one last time.
‘I could have had a thousand different mums,
but forever grateful you were mine.’
 
As she walked toward the light,
a tear fell from my eye.
‘This isn’t the end’ I whisper,
‘Someday I’ll meet you in the sky.’

Dreamer

Dreamer is about how it feels to exist in a world that has always tried to constrict you.

When I was a girl, I looked at the world with wonder. 
Lighting was beautiful and so was the thunder. 
I sat in classroom’s dreaming in my mind, 
Of the corners of the world I was still yet to find.
But as I grew, my dreaming was a disruption. 
The oceans of my mind were too much of an interruption.
‘Eyes on the board,’ my teachers would say, 
‘Stop daydreaming! The time to play is only an hour away.’
My dreaming was stripped from my mind in the form of angry teachers who were really just blind.
But it worked. 
I stopped dreaming, and life lost most of its deep and rich meaning. 
For years I tried to live as the realists told me to exist, only dreaming at night, when there was no threat of becoming too bright. 
I had finally learnt that black was black and white was white.
When one day, my world was pulled from my feet.
The devil was dark and it was him whom I’d meet.
Though you’d be surprised what he told me, you really would. 
For dancing with him changed everything I’d ever understood. 
Though he was darkness, he showed me the light.
I no longer looked at life in such strict black and white.
The world was reborn through my big dreamer eyes, and I began to despise anyone who’d ever told me otherwise.
But I made it back!
The most important thing.
For a dreamer will always be a dreamer,
No matter the cage they’re placed in.

Sea and Star’s

Sea and Star’s is about feeling called back to the natural world. The modern world can leave people feeling very separate from the environment. This poem serves as a reminder that we are all one being on a shared journey.

I look at the night sky,
And I wonder why,
I feel I’m called home,
From a world that feels so alone.

I look down at my skin,
 And realise I’m the star’s kin,
Before I breathed this air,
My home was up there.

I look towards the sea,
And let out a small plea,
‘Let me live with ease,
like a bird flying in the breeze.’

A tear fell from my eye,
And I realise from my outcry,
The water from my emotion,
Is the same that fills the ocean.

We are the sea and the stars,
Covered in faint scars,
Hoping to return home, 
After a long life of being left to roam.

Horizon

Horizon is about the start of grief. It’s about finding a new way to relate to the person you have lost. I believe that love transcends Death, and the Love from a person who has passed on can find you in the smallest ways; you just have to open your eyes and see it.

As I stared at the ocean,
The waves crashed the shore.
I took in a breath,
And let out a roar.

 I looked to the horizon,
A light flashed the sky.
 ‘I miss you,’ I whisper,
 As a tear fell from my eye.

The ocean remembers
The colours of you.
Your smiling and laughter, 
Could be seen in the blue.

‘I’m okay Lulu,’
I felt you in my mind.
‘We’ll always be together,
Our hearts are Intertwined.’

Tears streamed from my eyes,
As I felt your new embrace.
The quiet of the ocean,
Matched your true grace.

The sun began to set,
My heart started to warm.
You are the ocean now,
In its perfect form.